Probate services by Final duties/Lifetime legal

KMA

I received a quote for £695 including VAT for simple probate service (small estate no property) plus legal disbursement costs via Final Duties. Apparently it will cost £155 for their solicitor to sort out the court fee (which is the one that will cost me £215+oath swearing related costs). This apparently might save me 4-5 weeks waiting for the probate appointment and an expected 8 weeks to settle estate afterwards as a timescale.


I am thinking will probably do myself (no will, intestate - applying for letters of administration) on behalf of me and other NOK, sibling.

notbritishgas

KMA wrote: »

I received a quote for £695 including VAT for simple probate service (small estate no property) plus legal disbursement costs via Final Duties. Apparently it will cost £155 for their solicitor to sort out the court fee (which is the one that will cost me £215+oath swearing related costs). This apparently might save me 4-5 weeks waiting for the probate appointment and an expected 8 weeks to settle estate afterwards as a timescale.


I am thinking will probably do myself (no will, intestate - applying for letters of administration) on behalf of me and other NOK, sibling.

Is the probate fee different if it is done by a solicitor?
I have recently obtained a grant of probate which cost £215, but speaking to a friend who did similar said his cost £155.
If so why? Does the probate office lose out?
Thanks

getmore4less

KMA wrote: »

This apparently might save me 4-5 weeks waiting for the probate appointment and an expected 8 weeks to settle estate afterwards as a timescale.

I doubt a DIY takes 4-5 weeks longer to get a grant and getting solicitors to finalise an estate in 8 weeks is .......

You can do most things before the grant anyway and once obtained collecting in the assets should be straightforward by then.

getmore4less

barryjarcher wrote: »

Thank you for your feedback, however my sisters (co executors) weren't that happy with a broker and that is was nowhere near either my fathers town or our locations. But I did use the quote obtained to get a much better deal on the quote the solicitor provided so they still saved me 1.2k. :T Goes to show that even solicitors have to barter their services (I had previously bartered for conveyencing services). :money:

Location of whoever does the job is not that relevent, everything apart from clearing property can be done remotely.

Most of the work finding out what assets exists is in many cases down to relatives and dealing with the personal stuff is often best done by relatives as well.

Why could the sisters not help out a DIY job.

EasySolution

Is the probate fee different if it is done by a solicitor?
I have recently obtained a grant of probate which cost £215, but speaking to a friend who did similar said his cost £155.
If so why? Does the probate office lose out?

If a Solicitor is making the application he or she is drafting the Oath. The application for the Probate Registry is slightly less work for the Probate Registry so £155.
If you are making a Personal application the Probate registry is drafting the Oath and they charge for that element, hence £215.

hallyscotland

We are using Final Duties and Stephensons Solicitors. I have to say whilst we might have saved money you get what you pay for. Slow service (we are approaching a YEAR now) on a non contested estate. Poor maths (simple addition!) etc leading to large reclaim to HMRC. long and short - if this ever happens again I would do probate myself. Its actually not that complex to do, and at least you are in charge of your own destiny. With Stephensons, it seems they have way too many cases and way too few people so it all take a ludicrous amount of time, which, when you want to grieve for your loss is not ideal.

mrgoatboy

^^^ This.

The outcome concerning Final Duties appears to be that their preference for passing customers to Stephensons Solicitors is guided solely by profit-margin concerns and not service quality. I'm not even talking about an expectation of exceptional customer service, I'm talking about the bare minimum for completing the job they have been tasked with. They don't even provide that.

Stephensons Solicitors, in my experience, are worse than shambolic, they are amateur and unprofessional. Even something as simple as checking whether any pension payments had been deposited into the deceased's account after the date of death, which usually have to be returned, is beyond the scope of their capabilities apparently.

So you are paying them to provide a service they are only partially capable of performing and, even then, it is at a glacial pace and, to top it all, when you finally get all the paperwork sent to you as the administrator, you have to go through all of it again anyway and complete the tasks they should have done but didn't.

In my opinion Final Duties need to have a serious rethink about their partnership with Stephensons Solicitors.

beetledriver

I'm advised Final Duties no longer refer work to Stephenson's

Rodders53

KMA wrote: »

Apparently it will cost £155 for their solicitor to sort out the court fee (which is the one that will cost me £215+oath swearing related costs). This apparently might save me 4-5 weeks waiting for the probate appointment and an expected 8 weeks to settle estate afterwards as a timescale.


I am thinking will probably do myself (no will, intestate - applying for letters of administration) on behalf of me and other NOK, sibling.

Do DIY it... the Court fee difference is correct (others have explained why). You will still need to gather all the docs / information for the Solicitor to fill in the forms and ask Banks etc.,.

No timescale difference really... Probate office aim turn all round in 4 weeks if correctly filled in and send you the Oath (2nd class post).

Oath can be sworn free at Probate Court (by appointment) or for a few £ (7-10?) at any solicitor (commissioner for oaths) and sent back.

The Grant will then be sent to you after another week or two.

Some courts are allegedly busier than others so appointment time waits can vary.

beetledriver

I would agree with Rodders53 especially if you have a simple estate and the time to manage the process. There are often differences in turnaround time between offices but providing you have followed the rules and done a little research it can be a rewarding process. Unfortunately application fees look set to increase dramatically with the government consulting on a new application charging structure proposal. Not sure if im allowed to post a link so I would just google probate application fee increase.

Proposed Fees

Less than £50,000 £0
£50,000 to £300,000 £300
£300,000 to £500,000 £1000
£500,000 to £1m £4,000
£1m to £1.6m £8,000
£1.6m to £2m £12,000
Above £2m £20,000